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MADURAI: In a setback to the DMK campaign for the April 13 assembly elections, the Tamil Nadu police on Tuesday arrested the party's Ramanathapuram MP, Rithish Kumar, and five others for allegedly abusing and assaulting a dalit villager on Monday night during a campaign. They have been remanded in custody by a Madurai court and lodged in prison here.

Ramanathapuram superintendent of police Anilkumar Giri told TOI that cases had been registered under several IPC sections and Section 3(1)(10) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against eight people, including the MP. "Rithish Kumar and five others have been arrested. We are searching for two more men in connection with the violence in the village that took place on Monday night," the officer said.

The incident took place in Peechankuri, the native village of DMK minister Suba Thangavelan, contesting from Thiruvadanai constituency in Ramanathapuram district. Villagers said the area lacked basic amenities, including good roads. They made repeated representations to the minister, which were ignored.

But the roads were laid hurriedly on Monday, in time for Thangavelan's campaign in the region. Irked by the fact that the roads had been laid purely for the comfort of the minister, the villagers dug them up as a mark of protest.

Rithish Kumar and his supporters, who were campaigning for the minister, arrived on the scene and allegedly used abusive language. They then hurled empty bottles and stones at them, say villagers. Natarajan, one of the protesting villagers, was injured.

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Basti, Mar 30 (PTI) A local court here today awarded seven years' rigorous imprisionment to a person for allegedly raping a dalit minor girl two years ago. Special Sessions Judge Umesh Chandra sentenced Vinod Chauhan to seven years' rigorous imprisionment for raping a seven-year-old girl in Dubaulia area of Mustkaham village here on March 11, 2009. The court also imposed a fine of Rs five thousand on the convict.

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Meanwhile, the court said it is necessary that the witnesses are housed at a suitable place in Delhi either near the court premises or at any other centrally located place. It said the place must be in comfortable and friendly surroundings rather than on the outskirts of Delhi in an area which is a Jat belt. The court made the remarks on an application filed by the counsel for victims for shifting the witnesses from Lampur detention centre at Narela, where the witnesses are made to stay, to any other place as the centre is meant for beggars and detainees. The counsel also said "the detention centre is situated at the outskirts of Delhi in the middle of Jat belt. The housing of witnesses under such conditions create a fear psychosis in the mind of the witnesses and virtually tantamounts to detention." The court said witnesses are the guests of the court and they cannot be made to stay in an uncomfortable and unsuitable place, which is demeaning for them in any way. "Physical discomfort or mental distress caused to the victims/ witnesses has an adverse affect on their mental state which affects dispensation of justice. Justice cannot be done if witnesses are subjected to any kind of discomfort," ASJ Lau said. The court had earlier framed charges against 98 upper caste men for their alleged roles in burning alive a 70-year-old Dalit man and his teenaged daughter at Mirchpur village in Hissar district on April 21 last year.

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Unlike regular courts, special courts for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in Tamil Nadu are disposing of cases expeditiously with the courts performing better than such special courts in other states, says a study by National Law School of India University, Delhi.

The results of the study, conducted to determine how these special courts are functioning, has prompted the Union government to announce the formation of special courts in all states, say activists.

Special courts to deal with atrocities against SC/STs currently function in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Recently, Union social justice and empowerment minister Mukul Wasnik said he had asked all states to set up exclusive courts to dispose of cases related to SC/STs.

According to the NLSIU study, these courts in Tamil Nadu are speedier at delivering justice than those in other states. While special courts in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh on average take nearly two years to dispose of a case, TN courts take around a year and four months. NLSIU research report says TN courts have disposed of over 216 cases filed in special courts for SC/STs from 1998.

Detailing the factors which delay the disposal of cases, researcher P. Ramesh and advocates Pandi Rajan and Ganesan say the delay in deciding atrocity cases starts even before the trial process formally begins with the submission of chargesheet in special courts. It takes almost of five to six days even to file the first information report. The delay at this initial stage could be due to lack of awareness about the SC/ST Act or due to unwillingness of the police to register the FIR, they said.

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KATHMANDU: The office-bearers of the United Dalit Political Struggle Committee on Wednesday met Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal and handed over a memorandum to him calling for properly addressing the demands of the Dalit community.

Among the demands contained in the memorandum are replacing the word 'public places' in the Article 14(2) of the Interim Constitution under the heading 'fundamental rights' with ' any private and public place'; immediately passing the bill related to banishing caste discrimination and practice of 'untouchability', addressing the issues related to Dalits by the high-level political task force; ensuring the proportional participation of the Dalits in all the state agencies; and taking stern action against the perpetrators of 'untouchability' and providing compensation to the victims.

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The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday rejected the bailapplications of 20 persons from Badanavalu near Mysore, who weresentenced to life imprisonment in a triple murder case.

On March 25, 1993, some Dalit residents of Badanavalu village wereattacked by 23 people following a dispute over their entry intoSiddappaji Temple. The 23 accused were convicted of killing B RNarayanswamy, his son Madhukar, and their neighbour Nataraj.

Three of the accused had died during trial and the sentencing wasgiven by the lower court in November 2010. The Sixth AdditionalDistrict and Sessions Court Judge L F Malavalli also sentenced them tothree years' rigorous imprisonment for causing grievous hurt underSection 326 (A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and one year forspreading hatred among the two communities, under Section 153 (A) ofthe IPC.

Atrocity on children

The Court disposed off the matter related to the poor implementationof the Juvenile Justice Act, giving liberty to the petitioner toapproach the local magistrate, if they knew of any incidents of illtreatment of children by the police.

Ullas, a social worker had filed a petition seeking prevention ofchild abuse and strict implementation of the Juvenile Justice Act. Hehad submitted that not much was being done to check rampant atrocitiesagainst children, in spite of the provisions in the Act.

The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice AS Bopanna gave the petitioner the liberty to conduct raids with thehelp of the Karnataka Legal Services Authority (KLSA) if he suspectedany ill treatment of juvenile offenders.

The KLSA was directed to provide a vehicle for such raids. Thepetitioner was further given the liberty of approaching the localmagistrate if he came across any instance of harassment. TheMagistrate was directed to lodge a complaint and inform the localSuperintendent of Police or Director General of Police who would thenhave to take action.

Intake to Tumkur varsity

The High Court has disposed of the matter related to enhancement ofintake to Tumkur University after the vice chancellor and registrarsubmitted an affidavit stating that the errors will be rectified.

Earlier, in his affidavit filed before the Division Bench comprisingChief Justice J S Khehar and Justice A S Bopanna, V-C S C Sharma hadapologised before the High Court for an 'unintended' error inenhancing the student intake for the year 2010-11.

Devaraj had filed a PIL claiming that the decision of the varsity toincrease the intake to 44 students from 34 was contrary to resolutionsof the academic council, syndicate and provisions of the KarnatakaState University Act and UGC norms.

He had alleged that the intake was enhanced under pressure fromvarious organisations. The Registrar apologised for the errors thathad crept in fixing the intake.

ANANTAPUR: In a shocking incident, a disabled 45-year old Dalit, was severely beaten up by upper caste villagers and he succumbed to his injuries later.

The incident happened at Namala village in CK Palle mandal yesterday at the Adhar card distribution centre.

When Harijan Tirupal went to get his Adhar card at the distribution centre, there was a big queue. He met the officials concerned and explained to them that being physically disabled, he cannot stand for long and requested them to issue him the card early.

Following his request, the officials asked him to sit in the chair and wait for some time.

Meanwhile local villagers B Venkatarami Reddy and Narendra Reddy along with two others, who were present there, took exception to Tirupal circumventing the queue and sitting in the chair in front of them.

They dragged him from the chair and beat him up mercilessly. Left out of breath, Tirupal returned home and narrated the incident to the family members.

He suddenly collapsed complaining of chest pain and even as the family members tried to shift him to Dharmavaram hospital, he succumbed to the injuries.

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BATHINDA: At a time when khap panchayats of Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh are under "attack" for openly issuing "death sentences" to couples who defy caste diktats on love marriages, the panchayats in Punjab are passing resolutions to decry the 'honour killing'.

The support of panchayats, which is diametrically opposite to their earlier known stance, against honour killings has come after the suggestion of Punjab and Haryana high court, said Parampal Kaur, District Development and Panchayat Officer, Bathinda.

The panchayats' resolutions, submitted to the state rural development and panchayat department, state: "Panchayat would oppose tooth and nail any attempt of such honour killing or public ostracism of couples who marry against the wishes of their family members". The panchayats started passing these resolutions on the directions of rural development and panchayat department, Punjab.

Earlier, in August last year, the state government had issued directions to all district police chiefs in the state to constitute five-member district-level counselling cells to give assistance to the "love birds" in marriage or those planning marriage. The cells were to impart guidance to their parents in resolving any sort of differences due to caste, creed and social status barriers.

Murders in the name of "honour" do not happen only in "uncivilized" hinterlands, but often enough even in elite sections of cities. In most cases, counselling of parents and lovers helps defuse the tension, added Vishav Jyoti Dhir, a short-story writer who is also member of District Honour Killing Counselling Cell in Faridkot.

The high court's suggestion to the state government had come after it decided a civil writ petition "Asha versus State of Haryana".

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JAIPUR: The state government's decision to freeze promotions till the time quantifiable data on the existing representation of SC/ST category employees in its jobs was collected has been challenged before the high court.

Issuing notices on a petition filed by a general category employee Govind Narayan Sharma, Justice Prem Shankar Asopa has sought a reply from the state government in two weeks. Sharma, a section officer at the secretariat, has also challenged two circulars of the state government regarding the collection of the SC/ST employees' data.

The dispute pertains to reservation in promotion granted to the SC/ST employees through constitutional amendments but put on hold in Rajasthan by a Supreme Court order that says the eligibility conditions for granting the benefit be fulfilled first. The conditions were laid down by the apex court in the judgment of M Nagraj in October 2006.

The general category employees have been demanding the state government should implement the apex court order by preparing a revised seniority list, while the SC/ST category employees want the promotion be stalled till the eligibility condition of collecting quantifiable data was fulfilled.

As per the Nagraj case judgment, the state government is required to establish through adequate data that the SC/ST category employees were inadequately represented in its services, that there was necessity to fill a post ignoring merit and that doing so would not hamper the overall administrative efficiency. "A consolidated data would convey a skewed representation of the reserved category employees. If the number of officers is high and the junior staff is low, a consolidated data would give their wrong representation in the government jobs," Sharma's counsel Shobhit Tiwari argued.

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India's east coast communities suffered from the tsunami of 2004, which made headlines around the world. Less well covered in the news are the annual cyclones that hit this coast, when the lives and homes of the most vulnerable have to be rebuilt. What can be done to stop this cycle of disaster and debt?

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